Pancakes and Camelot

Recently I had a spontaneous invitation to attend a Taste of Home Cooking Show with a sweet lady from church. Turns out she happened to run into an old friend at the mall who invited her to stuff 'goody' bags for a 1,000 people for this thing and in return she got some free tickets- front row dead center! Who would she share this experience with? Well, as it turns out, she thankfully remembered that I loved to cook and "would I like to join her this evening at 7?" Indeed I would! So off I went three hours later (thanks to a kind husband who watched two little people so I could go). Now as much fun as I had, 6 or more straight years of watching cooking shows every Saturday made me a little too, um, how should I put this, experienced for the caliber of cooking this master chef guy was doing...whoopie pies, salads, little pork sliders, chocolate cake, ranchos heuvos,...But this is Taste of Home we're talking about, not Gourmet magazine.
Needless to say I had a wonderful night and got inspired to make many new, simple recipes. Which at this point in my life is a necessity!
So in our bag of goodies was many things, one of which was a mini King Arthur Flour recipe booklet. Now let me tell you, I'm all about buying generic and cheap. But when it comes to King Arthur Flour, it is worth the money folks! Well, maybe not for thickening soup, but if you're going to make breads and cakes galore, no other flour compares. Really. But enough free advertising... one of their recipes was a whole-grain pancake mix. Since Luke asks me to make pancakes every other day, I wanted to try it.
Side note: I've really been evaluating how much wheat flour I eat, and trying to get my kids eating more of a variety of grains and less white flour products...I feel better when I eat eggs and oatmeal and fruit instead of a stack of pancakes, so I figure they will to. Alas, I have tried making healthy pancakes many times, with dismal success. Hard and flat and gluey have been my outcomes.
So this recipe caught my attention because months ago I had bought King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour when it was on sale so I could see what it was like. (It's wonderful by the way, very mild).  I also used some organic spelt flour since I had it on hand. And I use much less salt and oil than it calls for and they are still wonderful. I have made these pancakes three times in 10 minutes flat and the kids love them and I love them. So enjoy!

Charis' King Arthur Whole Grain Pancakes

2 cups King Arthur white whole wheat flour (really, who else makes the stuff?)

2 cups organic whole grain spelt flour (if you can’t find this, just use the white whole wheat instead)

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

3 ½ cups old fashioned rolled oats

3 TB. raw sugar

3 TB. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 TB. baking soda

2/3 cup vegetable oil

In a food processor or blender, in batches if necessary, process oats until chopped fine, but not powdered. Add all ingredients and mix together well. Store in fridge or freezer.

To make pancakes, simply mix 1 cup mix with 1 cup buttermilk and 1 egg. Let sit for 5 minutes. Drop by ¼ cupfuls onto a slightly greased nonstick skillet or griddle and cook until puffy and set around the edges, about 2 minutes. Flip and continue to cook for 2 minutes. Makes 6-8 small pancakes (which is perfect for me and two little boys!)

And speaking of Arthur, something else that excited me recently was the much awaited return of the BBC show Merlin (which airs in the UK). We have watched all three seasons faithfully and have been waiting impatiently all summer for the next season to start =: ) And last night I discovered that one of my dear friends from college loves the show too! Ah the little things that make us smile...

By the way, I tried to teach Luke 

that the face on a quarter is George Washington, 

but he adamently insists it is Jesus.

Have a good day!